Pakistan violates ceasefire agreement with India for 10th day: Why does it continue to fire across the Line of Control?

Mint

04-05-2025

Pakistani troops continued their pattern of unprovoked small arms firing across multiple sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, drawing a strong and effective response from the Indian Army, officials said on Sunday.
This marks the 10th consecutive night of cross-border firing, occurring amid escalating tensions following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 people, most of them tourists.
According to officials, ceasefire violations were reported from eight locations across five districts of the Union Territory during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately, no casualties have been reported so far.
'During the night of May 3 and 4, Pakistan Army posts resorted to unprovoked small arms fire across the LoC in areas opposite Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, Mendhar, Naushera, Sunderbani, and Akhnoor in J&K. Indian Army responded promptly and proportionately,' a defence spokesperson said.
The ceasefire violations along the LoC and International Border (IB) have been very rare since India and Pakistan renewed the ceasefire agreement on February 25, 2021.
India shares a total of 3,323 km of border with Pakistan, divided into three parts: the International Border (IB), approximately 2,400 km from Gujarat to the northern banks of the Chenab River in Akhnoor, Jammu; the Line of Control (LoC), 740 km long, running from parts of Jammu to parts of Leh; and the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL), 110 km long, dividing the Siachen region from NJ 9842 to Indira Col in the north.
The LoC, serving as the de facto border, stretches for approximately 740 kilometres, from Sangam in Kashmir to Point NJ-9842 near the Siachen Glacier. In Jammu, the LoC transitions into what India considers the International Border (IB), as India has no territorial claims on Pakistani Punjab.
The Ceasefire Line between India and Pakistan was initially established under the Karachi Agreement of 1949, following the 1948–49 war. It was later renamed the Line of Control (LoC) after the Simla Agreement in 1972. Though not recognised as an international boundary, the LoC functions as a military control line between the two countries.
However, cross-border firing and the infiltration of Pakistan-backed terrorists, particularly since the onset of the Kashmir insurgency in 1989, along with attacks by Pakistani Border Action Teams (BATs), have rendered the ceasefire 'agreement' effectively meaningless.
Periods like the 1990s and the span between 2016 and 2021 saw over a thousand violations annually, with the 1990s often described by Indian Army veterans as a 'free for all' along the Line of Control.
In 2021, both militaries found mutual incentive to curb hostilities and reaffirmed the 2003 ceasefire understanding, originally established ahead of the India-Pakistan Composite Dialogue.
Despite the broader breakdown in diplomatic and economic ties since 2019, the military channel remains the only active line of bilateral communication, giving both nations a reason to maintain the current ceasefire arrangement.
According to (Retd) IFS officer Anil Trigunayat, former Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta, ceasefire violations are mostly cover fires to enable the entry of terrorists, and to provoke India to retaliate.
'Mostly it does to facilitate the entry of terrorists across the border by providing fire cover. Secondly it wishes to provoke India to retaliate and use grey zone warfare to accuse India of violation to garner international sympathy and domestic support as it goes through tremendous financial and socio-economic stress," the former Ambassador told Livemint.
Over the past four years, Pakistan's economy has steadily declined, while the military's dominant hold over the country is increasingly being challenged by insurgent groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).
Following the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, the TTP significantly escalated its operations, leading to a 73% surge in terror attacks across Pakistan in the first 21 months of Taliban rule, according to a report by ORF.
The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been hit hardest, witnessing an alarming 279.8% rise in incidents, jumping from 572 in 2021 to 2,173 in 2024. Meanwhile, the BLA and BLF have also stepped up their offensives, particularly targeting Pakistani military installations, further destabilizing internal security from multiple fronts, according to the report.
First Published: 4 May 2025, 08:14 PM IST